What Is Iron Ore

Iron ore

The most plenteous rock-forming element, constituting about 5% of the Earth's crust is Iron (Fe). After oxygen, silicon and aluminum, iron is the fourth element which is widely distributed. The pure iron is silvery white, very ductile, strongly magnetic and melts at 1528° C. The two most important minerals in these deposits are iron oxides: hematite (Fe2O3) and magnetite (Fe3O4). In modern industrial society Almost 95% of all metals used is iron, thus it is an obligatory elements for modern civilization and people from more than 3,000 years age have been skilled in how to use it. And in the 14th century when smelting furnaces began to replace forges, it only became widespread.Iron can be extracted from the rocks which are named Iron ores. In which from chemical reactions combine iron and oxygen in marine and fresh waters, forming them. These minded irons, produced almost every iron and steel objects that we use in everyday life from paper clips to automobiles to the steel beams in skyscrapers. About 98% of world iron ore production is used to make iron in the form of steel. And one of the major export industries in Australia is related to iron ore.

How does it Form?

Over 1.8 billion years ago, almost all major iron ores are formed and deposited in rocks. At that time oceans contained the plenteous dissolved iron and almost no dissolved oxygen. So, when the first organisms being able the act of photosynthesis, began releasing oxygen into the waters and then the iron ore deposits began forming. Therefore, immediately this oxygen combined with the abundant dissolved iron to produce hematite or magnetite. What are now known as the "banded iron formations” are the minerals deposited on the sea floor in great abundance.

What is the Use of Iron Ore?

The primarily and first use of iron ore is in the production of iron. It is used for thousands of other items. Most of the iron produced is then used to make steel. Steel is also has a lot of usage like making automobiles, locomotives, and ships, beams used in buildings, furniture, paper clips, and tools, reinforcing rods for concrete, bicycles and so forth.Finally by the photosynthesis of the earliest forms of plant life Iron Ore Deposits and began to produce major amounts of oxygen. One of the important features of oxygen is that it likes to react with things. Thus it is one of the most reactive elements in nature. This means that it will readily attack and attach itself to other elements; in particular, Iron is readily attacked by oxygen. This process took place between around 3.5 and 2.5 billion years ago and significant deposits of iron ores were laid at the bottom of the sea. The places were deposits laid down at that time are now is United States, Australia, and South Africa which iron ores mined today. Once the oceans were swept clean of iron, then the oxygen could begin to accumulate in the atmosphere, and respiration by sophisticated life forms could begin in earnest. It took a billion years for this process to complete. When it was finished, it closed the period in the history of the Earth which we call the Archean.

Different types of iron ore

Almost Metallic iron is commonly produced from the smelting of iron ore to produce pig iron. Iron metal may be produced from the smelting of certain iron compounds. Their concentration in economic proportions is referred to as 'iron ore'. It is produced when oxygen (O2) reacts with iron (Fe) containing substances such as FeS2 (pyrite). Oxide rocks such as limonite, hematite, magnetite (a magnetic rock), and siderite are among the iron ores and these rocks are now mined, therefore, the iron they contain is extracted.

Low-grade ore

Low-grade ore is a term used for iron-rich rocks. The main source of iron ore for many centuries of the World's early history of production of iron was Low-grade ore. Since the 1950s North America's main supply has been low-grade ore. The dominant economic iron mineral in low-grade ore is magnetite. By a process known as wet-magnetic separation, the ore may be easily beneficiated - in North America this process has been employed for many decades.

High-grade ore

Currently most of the mined iron ore in the world comes from the large deposits of massive irony rock were already enriched in iron, most commonly a banded iron formation (BIF). Another type of high-grade deposit is pisolitic limonite/goethite ore formed in ancient river channels.As the dominant iron mineral may be beneficiated through wet hydrometallurgical processes BIF with hematite is beneficiated too, though it rarely is due to economic constraints.By supplying from massive hematite deposits, Current world production of iron ore is dominated. Ore production in Australia is only from high-grade hematite and pisolitic goethite-limonite deposits, mostly in the Hamersley Basin region of Western Australia.The estimation of world resources of crude iron ore exceeds 800 billion tones that containing more than 230 billion tonnes of iron. The world's resources are dominated by low-grade ore.